HBO’s ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’ Renewed Through 2018 – TCA

At the top of HBO’s TCA presentation, network programming president Casey Bloys announced Real Time with Bill Maher has been renewed through 2018, bringing its run on HBO to 16 seasons.

Currently averaging 4.4M viewers, the provocative talk show is enjoying its most watched season since its 2003 debut. HBO already had re-upped late night host John Oliver through ’17.

Bloys also announced that all 89 episodes of the late Gary Shandling’s fake late-night talk show, The Larry Sanders Show, will debut on HBO Now and HBO Go on September 23, after which HBO Comedy will air them on September 29. Shandling, who died unexpectedly in March, co-created and starred as the host of the late night talk show in the comedy series.

Maher’s on a roll this election cycle; Real Time aired provocative live weeknight telecasts during the weeks of the RNC and DNC. On a special RNC edition last week, for instance, panelist Dan Savage agreed with the host that the hate at this year’s convention is “out of control” though a certain amount of tearing down the other party goes on at all political conventions.

“You have Israelis writing columns comparing what is being said now about Hillary with what was said about Rabin before he was assassinated by an unhinged right-winger,” Savage said.

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“As long as Washington keeps serving up crazy, we’ll be there to push it around the plate,” Maher said in a statement issued to media subsequent to this morning’s TCA news. “In these turbulent, uncertain times, I can’t think of anything more important than me being on TV.”

The re-upping news comes as Maher’s back in the running for best late-night talk show after getting snubbed last year for the first time in a decade (though Real Time with Bill Maher was not on last year’s list, Maher was Emmy-nommed for his Live from D.C. stand-up special, and as producer on HBO’s Vice.)